We sometimes feel that photoreal arch-viz flies a little under the radar, that occasionally it's the unsung hero of 3D modelling. Perhaps not quite as cool as a creature or a character, nor as awesome as a sweeping ice-covered mountain vista, photoreal interiors nonetheless can hold a viewer captivated for hours, searching for and discovering thoughtful, tiny details that make the piece feel...well...real.

This mini-comp focusses specifically on real-life, 2014 interiors. We don't want your spaceship flight-decks, or your fantasy castle halls (phenomenal as those can be.) We'd like to see a room we can walk into today. It doesn't have to be a household room - it can be a public space. (This museum room is pretty amazing - it's Galleria Borhgese by Hector Aguado)

So what do you have to do? Well, like the other mini-comps in this thread, you need to upload your work as a project to your CGPortfolio and TAG it "interiorsminicomp''. This will build a gradual gallery of work our judges can use for judging.

We've got a couple of great judges for this one - our forum leader Giorgio Luciano, and we're lucky enough to have Chad Wanstreet, an FX supervisor from Blur and a photorealistic environment specialist. (There may also be a third mystery judge - stay tuned!)

Please add all of these to your CGPortfolio project page. If you want comments or feedback on your work as you go, you can post links in this thread.

If you want to submit a piece you uploaded some time ago, you can. Please make sure it has all the necessary elements, and it's tagged "interiorsminicomp" and it will be considered.

PRIZES:

Same as always This is a mini-comp. Each of our judges will select their favourite piece, and each of those will win a free CGSConnect Membership , and a free CGWorkshop of their choice.]]>Wed, 14 May 2014 01:03:36 +0000http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=1164388
Posted By: Buscat
Post Time: 03-19-2014 at 04:17 AM
Text:

Oh, come on. You know you love Game of Thrones. You DO! We know you do, because the amount of GOT fan art that you upload is remarkable. And some of it is good.

(Here's one of our favourites so far, from David A.F in Portugal. For the uninitiated, it depicts the moment when 9 year old Bran realises he's actually the Lord of Winterfell)

Because we're all fans, too, we decided that our next CGPortfolio Upload mini-comp should actually be Game of Thrones fan art in celebration of the upcoming fourth season. So, between now and Midnight April 19th (the next month), please upload all your GOT inspired art to your CGPortfolio - either 2D or 3D.

(Give it 24 hours after you upload it for it to appear in the gallery - the gallery is cached

So what can you win?

The top three entries (in either 2 or 3D) will each win a lordship, a free Ballistic Book of your choice, a free CGWorkshop of your choice and the promise we will never publicly display your head on a pike.

Judges are yet to be chosen, but once we've held the selection tourney we'll post the names of the survivors if we're satisfied they won't poison us at any point during the comp (or for some years afterward). Once we dub them, please note their judgement is final and no correspondence will be entered into (unless it's sent by live raven. If you can do that, we'll go there.)

All art already in the gallery is already entered by default - there's no initial upload date, only a final (bloody) execution date (Midnight PST April 19th)

So get posting, ladies, sers and smallfolk! Bring out your Starks Oh, and feel free to post links to them in this thread - we'd love to see what you're posting!]]>Tue, 18 Mar 2014 22:17:39 +0000http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=1156090
Posted By: Buscat
Post Time: 02-11-2014 at 05:22 AM
Text:

Dust off your prehistoric reference photography! This month's CGPortfolio mini-challenge asks you to texture a piece of the past.

So about a month ago at CGSociety, we had some pretty amazing people contact us. The team at the Idaho Virtualization Laboratory have been hard at work over the last ten years scanning fossils, artefacts, and comparative vertebrate skeletons with their incredible 3D scanner (accurate to a couple of microns) and turning the fossil scans into research tools and printable 3D models. The Idaho Virtualization Lab are a scientific not-for-profit, but they want to see the broader CG community discover their models. They hope the models can be useful for more than just their digital accuracy - they're hoping their models can occasionally be used for something more creative.

And that's where we all come in. The Lab have donated us two scientifically accurate models of a prehistoric shark (a Helicoprion ) and it's shellfish prey, the Nautiloid. The Helicoprion is an incredible looking fish. It has evolved an idiosyncratic "whorled-jaw", with teeth spiralling outward and into its lower jaw. It is believed that this adaptation gave these sharks the ability to efficiently remove the fleshy bits of nautiloids from their shells.

Your challenge is to texture these historically accurate extinct marine creatures. As they're no longer around, we can't know exactly what colour they were or the texture of their skins and shells. Here you have some creative license.

The Lab's Jesse Pruitt says, "I would like to see the contestants make the models their own, by that I mean pose them anyway they want, modify the meshes as they see fit, pretty much just have fun! From the fossil evidence these sharks were social and seemed to congregate in large groups, as did the nautiloids. In fact we find hundreds of the nautiloids for every shark, so there were lots of them swimming around back then."

Judges for this competition are Image Engine's Lead Texture Painter Justin Holt , MPC's Texture Painter (and our forum manager) Leigh Van Der Byl and the Idaho Virutalization Laboratory's Nick Clement. Nick has an MA in archeology and a MFA in art. Justin and Leigh also teach with us - Justin teaches our online CGWorkshop "Realistic Character Skin Texture Painting in Mari", and Leigh teaches "Environmental Texturing ." So if you feel you want to learn more before you submit your entry, we suggest you sign up!

We asked Justin and Leigh what they're specifically looking for in judging the entries. Leigh said, "I guess what I'd be looking for is an eye for detail, particularly details that feel motivated (ie purposeful) which gives the creatures a sense of believability in the world. I'd also be looking for realism here, not stylisation."

Justin agreed. "The texture work needs to be catered towards realism over stylisation," he said.

(above - model of whorled-jaw resting inside the mouth of the Helicoprion)

HOW TO ENTER.

Our judges are looking for:

1. One final beauty render for showcase purposes (not for primary judging)
2. Orthographic screengrabs of the textures in flat shaded and shaded views (no need for full shading) of all maps being painted for the final look/render (these are the images that are ultimately going to be judged)
3. 3-5 close up selected screengrabs out of Mari, Photoshop or whichever program you're using (flat shaded and shaded) to showcase fine detail work. Be sure to also screengrab the secondary maps from these close up selects as well.

Please upload your completed model to your CGPortfolio , and tag it "textureminichallenge". This will slowly build a gallery of entries - we'll link it later as it builds. Add the other required elements (the screen grabs) to the same project within your CGPortfolio.

Just to clarify, you can enter by texturing and uploading EITHER model, or you can complete BOTH and upload them TOGETHER IN A SCENE.

PRIZE CATEGORIES AS FOLLOWS:

1. Best Helicoprion
2. Best Nautiloid
3. Best scene using both Helicoprion and Nautiloid.

PRIZES:

The winner in each category will win a CGWorkshop of their choice, and a years' free CGSConnect membership. They will also win a free model of their choice from the Idaho Virtualization Laboratory's huge collection of scans.

The OVERALL WINNER will receive a full colour 3D print of their fully-textured model, courtesy of the Idaho Virutalization Laboratory.

Download the files for the Nautiloid here
Download the files for the Helicoprion here

Please post questions in the thread below, we'll do our best to answer them for you asap. Feel free also to post links to your uploaded entries in your CGPortfolio as you upload.

Happy sharking.

(Please note that judges have the final decision over the finalists and winning entries, and no correspondence will be entered into.)]]>Mon, 10 Feb 2014 23:22:32 +0000http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=1149442
Posted By: Buscat
Post Time: 01-16-2014 at 06:35 AM
Text:

We've had so many fantastic changes recently at CGSociety that it's hard to keep track. However, last week we launched a super-cool addtion to our new CGPortfolio system - Galleries . The gallery system allows you to collect images together by searching on a tag. Broader functionality is still pending, but at the moment, if you go into any tagged image in CGPortfolio and click on a tag, you'll pull up a gallery of all images which have the SAME tag. So if you click on a "Dinosaur" tag, for example, you'll bring up a gallery of every image tagged "Dinosaur" that has ever been uploaded to CGPortfolio. Nifty, huh?

We want to use this new functionality to showcase the awesome body of work our CGWorkshops students have created over the years. Here in the office we get to see everything made in the workshops, but until now there's been no really good way of beaming it all back to you. Now there is.

So how do you upload and win? It's very easy! If you created a piece of art (either 2D or 3D) in a CGWorkshop, or as a direct result of a technique you learned in a CGWorkshop, upload it to your CGPortfolio. Once you've done this, you need to TAG IT TWICE - once with the tag "CGWorkshops" and once with the SURNAME of your instructor for the class you made it in. So if you took Photoreal Matte Painting with David Luong, you'd tag your piece with both "CGWorkshops" and "Luong".

Does that make sense? I hope so! If you need further clarification please post in the thread below. And feel free to post links to your recently added work.

On Weds Feb 5th at midnight PST, we'll select 9 pieces to award prizes. The winner will receive a free CGWorkshop worth up to $649, numbers two and three a free CGTOD to the value of $159. All the 9 selected will receive CGSConnect Memberships to the value of $59.

There are no criteria for selection other than the pieces must be uploaded to your CGPortfolio and tagged correctly. As you tag your work with the CGWorkshops tag, it will automatically be added to the Alumni Gallery. So keep an eye on the gallery as it grows.

And the judges? Well, I mentioned that here in the office we see all the work? The judges are the 9 of us here - we'll each choose a piece that speaks to us, and tell you the reason why.]]>Thu, 16 Jan 2014 00:35:29 +0000http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=1145591
Posted By: Buscat
Post Time: 12-30-2013 at 02:19 AM
Text:

Welcome to our newsiest CGPortfolio upload challenge - just in time for the new year. This one is easy! You just need to upload a finished 3D model to the Verold 3d interactive viewer, and add it to your CGPortfolio by Monday January 20th at midnight PST.

There are no criteria for creating your model, other than it must be in 3D, and it must have been uploaded into Verold and placed in your CGPortfolio . So a great opportunity to make something completely new, or to finish and upload something you've been working on for awhile.

We're fortunate to have recruited a couple of awesome judges - Sony Santa Monica's Katon Callaway , and Schell Games' John DeRiggi . Verold's Mike Bond, formerly Lead Game Designer at Tecmo Koei Canada, has joined us as a third judge. At the end of the competition period, they'll each pick their favourite piece and give reasons for their choices (and their decisions are final!)

You know the only thing wrong with the holiday season? Not enough monsters. Luckily, between now and the 23rd of December, CGSociety is giving you the chance to upload as many creepy, slimy, toothy, hairy, leggy, scaly, craggy, smelly, weird or just plain scary (or even beautiful) beings as your heart desires.

Your creatures can be 2D or 3D - they can be WIPs or fully realised - they can be whatever you like. You just need to upload them to your CGPortfolio before December 23rd 2013 and put them in the "Creatures" category. (Don't forget to do this, or your creature can't be considered.)

After this date, our five judges (all contributors to The Essence - Creatures ) will each choose their favourite piece, and tell us why they like it. There are no other criteria - it's entirely up to them (and their decisions are final!)

Starting November 2013 and moving forward into 2014, we'll be running monthly CGPortfolio upload mini-challenges based around specific styles and themes.

All you need to do is watch for the new theme to be announced each month, then upload work to your CGPortfolio and tag/categorise your work as outlined in the relevant thread. That's it - that's all you need to do.

Prizes will be small because we want to run these challenges often - Ballistic Books, DVDs, Connect Memberships, CGTODs and CGWorkshops. Judges will be selected on the basis of their experience within their genre, and they will choose the winning work or works (a little bit like the Editor's Choice Gallery)

As well as winning a small prize, the winning entrie(s) each month will have their CGPortfolio highlighted via our social media and our newsletter. There will be a thread in this forum for each challenge where you can ask questions, but there is no need to post WIPS. You can post links through to your CGPortfolio if you like, but you don't need to - we'll run a search on the challenge theme at the end of each challenge.

Please note that in all challenges the judges have full authority to select winners at their discretion, their decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into.